Monday, November 16, 2009

My. How Things Have Changed...

...So I am driving down Rosecrans heading towards the Goodwill store...delivering bags of clothing...darn pants keep shrinking in the wash...can't quite figure that out...must be something in the new-fangled detergents...and I see the sign flashing over the corner drug store...and it got me thinking about the "good ole days"...

...No, silly, it wasn't for the pink strip club advertising "Join Us For A Gala Nude-In"...but rather the Walgreens at the corner of Midway and Rosecrans...actually a decent looking store which I have frequented on occasion...convenient...well lit...and if you can serpentine in and around the gathering of homeless folks on the corner...I nearly hit a Home Depot shopping cart full of plastic bags...overflowing like a black poly volcano....but anyway...

...Flashing prominently on the store sign on the corner...besided 1 gallon of milk for $1.99...a good deal so I had Ruth run in and get two of them while I idled at the light...then it flashed the message that triggered the old metallic tapes in the gray matter...reversing and spinning for a few moments while it searched...and a different era came to mind...when I saw the message OPEN THANKSGIVING DAY 24 HOURS...

...you see back about 35 years I was a stock clerk at the Payless Drug Stores at the corner of Kings Canyon and Clovis in Fresno...well, actually not a stock clerk because I actually worked at the "Back Wall" and kept the dog food and paper products and household cleansers and the....ummm...errr....the...well, I will just say it...the feminine hygiene products as well...a wonderful job for a 17 year old guy...and I can assure you that my dear fellow employees and cashiers never messed with me on that one..."Mr. Ataide. Price check on Maxi-Pads, 24 pack, checkstand 3!"...trust me it did no lasting harm...well, other than 2 1/2 years of counseling while in the US Navy...but I digress......you see as the youngest employee at Payless I frequently would be the person locked in to the store over the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Holidays...after all it paid double-time...and knocking down $4 per hour was really something...but to be inside of a huge store...for Payless was the size of a large grocery store or Target more so than a Walgreens or Longs Drugs...and I would have the run of the place for 8 hours...lliterally locked in with all the lights on...on a holiday...kind of a strange experience...

...what does one do in a locked in store? Well...start with turning on all of the stereos in the electronics department on the same radio station...I think it was K-FIG...the real rock station in Fresno in the 70's...getting a bicyle or two out for riding up and down the aisles while snacking on pork rinds or 5th Avenue candy bars...and I would do a little bit of work...stock a few shelves...sample a few beverages...eat a bit more...

...but what really sticks with me all these years later is playing pinball up at the front of the store...hearing the bells and buzzers sharper and clearer than one could do when the store was actually open...it seems so surreal and strange..and then people coming up to the glass front doors and seeing me and pounding on them telling me to let them in ...panicked no doubt because the "Operation" game they bought for little Chuckie needed batteries...or it was New Years and they forgot the champagne...Charles Krug...about .99 cents a bottle as I recall...and almost worth every cent...but they could never quite figure out why the store lights were on and here was this young guy with long hair playing pinball on a holiday...

...so I think we kind of have lost something with everything open 24 hours...not entirely sure what it is we have lost but perhaps it has something to do with the special nature of the holiday...time with family and friends...the town basically shut down...and I guess at times even after all of these years I am somewhat nostaglic for that era...and think that I too have pushed too hard and run the race too fast...I left for the US Navy from this job at Payless and never looked back...maybe I should have a bit more...

...so Payless is long gone...sucked up into the Rite-Aid leveraged buyouts of the 90's...and the old store and shopping center in Fresno is kind of unrecognizable...so this holiday season I would ask that maybe you not frequent the stores that are all open...perhaps with time stores will begin to close again on holidays...or if you do need to visit a store or restaurant on a holiday that you show a special bit of grace and consideration to the people who are working...

...because odds are they are not having nearly as much fun as I did when I work holidays all those years ago...